One In Four
by Sunbird Riding Shotgun
Summary: Abby has never been known for having the best taste in men but Andrew seemed so perfect for her she, and the NCIS team in general, ignored past mistakes. It isn't until a new case strikes a little too close to home that questions begin to rise. Friendship
1. Prologue

**A/n:** This is my first NCIS fanfic ever and my first fanfic in a couple of years so I'll see how well I do. (and pray I don't fall flat on my face). Constructive criticism is always welcome and praise is used to feed my muses.

**A/n Returns:** This occurs sometime after bloodbath and before Dogtags but don't think to hard about when exactly it takes in cannon.

**The Revenge of A/n:** This chapter is more a prologue than anything else and we'll get back to NCIS headquarters starting next chapter. This is either going to be a simple friendship piece or possibly end up Abby/Ziva if I can manage to not make it look like Abby's shunning mankind because of a guy.

**Disclaimer Strikes Back:** I do not own these characters. I also understand the subject of domestic violence is no laughing matter and intend to present it in as tactful a way possible, if I offend you please let me know. I'm not making promises about changing anything but I'll take it into consideration at the very least.

**One in Four**

Abigail Succito had never been known for her particularly good taste in men.

She'd made her peace with this fact years ago. Her personality and appearance tended to attract the sort of guys that weren't exactly destined for healthy relationships. She kept trying, mostly because she believed in numbers and statistics and both they and the, if unproven, law of big numbers said that sooner or later she'd find someone she meshed with. After a fizzled out relationship with Mcgee and the rather disastrous relationship with Mikeal and half a dozen others in the revolving door that was her social life she was beginning to think numbers might just be failing her (though her faith in science, I should note, would never be allowed to be shaken again).

It was one Friday night when numbers began to work for her. She was sick of the unabbyish feeling that had been bothering her ever since Gibbs had literally driven her home and taken away her keys to force her to get some sleep after nearly a week of Caf-Pow!s and catnaps during a rather difficult case. That had been Wednesday and she wasn't allowed to go back to the office until Monday unless it was an emergency but she'd been given her keys back at least. She finished off the second of the two Caf-Pow!s Gibbs had brought her when he dropped her keys back off and stood going to her closet. She'd been "single" way too long, almost a month now, and if she wanted the LoBN to kick in anytime soon she'd better keep adding to those big numbers.

Dressed for the club and ready to go at it once more with feeling she left for her favorite club and had danced with nearly every single guy in the place before she stopped for a drink and caught him staring. He was the usual TDandH guy, about her age from the looks of it. The profiler in her guessed from the location of his tats and the relative sanity of his hair he wasn't as "hardcore" as some of the others here and might even wear a suit to work when needed. Still, with his black hair spiked up and dressed for the scene she couldn't help but return his smirk. "See something you like?" She asked.

He nodded and slid over next to her. "May I help you get further intoxicated?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Is asking if you could buy me a drink so hard?" Abby said mostly to be argumentative, after as many drinks as she'd had bought for her a little creativity with the old line was appreciated.

"Don't you get tired of the old cliché?" He asked, motioning the bartender to get Abby a fresh one of whatever she was drinking nonetheless. Abby raised an eyebrow, put the glass to her lips and grinned.

His name was Andrew Sureman, he was a psychology major who'd specialized in criminal pathology and worked with the local PD. He was a year older than her and an inch taller when she had her boots on, winning even more points. He liked the same music, complemented her collar, and when conversation led to her coffin they laughed about the obvious necrophilia references and he said he had always love the idea of dating a vampire.

They left the club together, but only ended up catching a very late dinner and making promise to meet for a second date that night.

In the coming weeks he met Bert (and loved him) and became as intimately attached to the inside of Abby's coffin as he could of possibly wanted. Abby in turn renewed her faith in the law of big numbers and found her evil twin Unabby seemed to have finally been banished into the abyss from whence she came.

They were both workaholics, which was a nice turn for Abby since most of her relationships hadn't understood that, but his hours were a little more stable and they rarely were both pulling all nighters which meant there was normally at least one of them able to function well enough. More than once she'd arrive at his apartment two hours late only to find he'd barely had enough time to set dinner on the stove himself. They'd complain (without meaning it) to eachother and be toasting to those sucked in by the "nine to five myth" by the end of the night.

Abby was so careful not to let it effect her work that the team didn't even realize she was dating until she started being dropped off and picked up from work in a car that was defiantly not hers. The team experienced almost no ripple of reaction more than Gibbs usual reminder about staying safe and being there if she needed him.

They would both later remember how she told him then that he didn't need to worry, that since statistically one in four women were victims of violence from their partners the Mikeal incident had her, Ziva, the Director, and the next girl he hired covered. It had come off a weaker joke then she'd meant but he'd let it slide.

Her silver haired fox was good like that.

It wasn't until two months after they'd started dating, about a month more than her relationships normally got without any major signs of doom, before Gibbs would be reminded of something else Abby had once told him.

"Statistically speaking, statistics are wrong. Sure, they can tell you one out of every two times you flip a coin it should only be tails once, but tails is a fighter you know. You can yammer on about statistics forever but that never stops tails from trying."

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	2. Chapter 1

A/n: Well I seem to be one of the few who considers the possibilities of last night's episode not being completely disastrous

A/n: Well I seem to be one of the few who considers the possibilities of last night's episode not being completely disastrous. I am holding onto the hope that the anti-logic of getting rid of four popular characters in one blow for reasons I cannot begin to fathom means that one way or another things are going to work out.

A/n Returns: This chapter is dedicated to all Jenny fans. She doesn't appear in this chapter but after fangirling with my friend about NCIS before the show and deciding Jenny's the only one we could stand dieing I feel a bit guilty.

A/n: Thanks for the support from all those who gave it!

The first thing Abby did when she entered the lab, even before turning on the lights, was take Bert from her bag give him a careful hug and put him on her desk. With her hippo safely restored to his proper home she felt herself relax slightly, though only just enough to abandon the relative safety of the dark to turn on a light.

She smiled a moment as she did so. Although others may argue that it was just her goth nature showing through once more she had logic behind that. Every time she or anyone she knew in NCIS had been attacked in the dark they'd been safe in the end. She didn't let herself consider the counterexample for day and light but she thought it sufficient to consider that if she was going to be attacked she'd rather stick with dark's track record.

Abby let her mind wander down that safe mental path as she busied herself starting up her army (king and queen first of course) and picking up any of the more random side projects she had lieing around from the last few days. She let the work and white noise comfort her. She'd of preferred music but since it was only a little after five in the morning and Gibbs would be worried about her soon enough today she figured she'd try to lay low until at least seven and hope he didn't need something until after she was supposed to be in for work.

When she ran out of things to do a little after six she sat down at her desk, closed her eyes, and let out a very Unabbyish sigh. One hand reached out to gather Bert the other went to the keyboard typing in the series of key's her hands hadn't forgotten yet. The picture from Gibb's days in retirement popped up on the screen and she felt herself relax a little more. She might not tell Gibbs Everything simply for the sake of both their sanities but it didn't mean having his picture to talk to didn't help.

She gave him a half forced smile as she ran a finger along the new hem on her hippo. She didn't know how he'd gotten ripped but he'd had a big gash in him when she'd woken up two hours ago and Abby had fixed him on the buss in. It was that reason she was taking him back to the safety of NCIS. In Abby's mind the (dark) lab in NCIS was the second safest place in the world when it came to everyday psychos and run of the mill badguys (she knew that she'd need a little more than bullet resistant glass in case of nuclear war, catastrophic natural disasters, or zombie apocalypse). The first place was Gibbs basement, but she didn't quite think things had gotten so dire for hippo to go into seclusion there, though now that she really thought of it she'd probably be pretty safe in Gibbs basement in case of Zombie attack. She doubted even Zombies could get past Gibbs when he was in marine mode.

When she leaned forward to rest her chin in her hands, more than content to stare at Gibbs and let her imagination take her into a daydream of Gibbs fighting off Zombies and being the amazing magic (and psychic) guy that he was, she winced. The slight pain from the movement and the touch of her fingers to the area around her eye jolted her out of her daydream.

She sighed again, wishing not for the first time that morning that she could remember how exactly she'd gotten home from the club last night. She stared at Gibbs and tried to put the pieces together.

Andrew had been in a really bad mood for a few days now. She understood, their work could be stressful, but last night instead of cheering him up like she normally did she'd made him loose his temper. He'd shouted for her to shut the hell up and continued shouting until she'd fled the apartment.

It had hurt more than she liked to admit. He'd never yelled at her before. He'd always been so nice. It was just the case, she'd told herself, he was working on a hard case and she knew firsthand how difficult that could be. She'd give him space, and a few days to realize what he'd done. She gave it three days before he appeared on her doorstep with black roses and caf-pow! And pleads for forgiveness. Andrew was one of the first guys she'd actually probably give it to.

Until then she had decided to keep her mind off him. She'd gone home, dressed to turn heads, and headed to her favorite club. She knew it was probably petty, to make such a point to dance with so many guys and that she was probably flirting more than usual but she never was good at the love game.

And he'd hurt her feelings, she deserved to be a little more relaxed than usual.

It wasn't long after midnight, and maybe one accepted "buy you a drink" too many, that things got a little fuzzy. Andrew had shown up, bought her another drink and started doing something that she vaguely remembered to be along the lines of an apology when a guy had come over. She remembered angry eyes and dancing with someone that wasn't Andrew and a hand on her wrist then nothing until she woke up this morning with a pounding headache, ripped hippo, and more bruises than she normally got when she got caught in the middle of a mosh pit.

Absently she touched the blackeye already making it clear her attempts to hide it with makeup would not fool anyone, and winced again. It wouldn't be the first time she'd gotten caught in a impromptu mosh pit, which she was relatively sure what had happened, she just normally wasn't too drunk to dodge when she did. Gibbs would get all Marine on her when he saw it, which normally she wouldn't mind if it weren't for the fact the investigator in her reminded her the first person he'd blame was Andrew. Considering they hadn't met yet, though she had been planning on fixing that, and this wasn't exactly the ideal way for her father figure to establish a positive optimistic opinion of the first guy in years she's actually considered introducing to him this was something she wasn't looking forward to.

But even as the touched her black eye again she couldn't keep her mind off what was really bothering her. The memory of Andrew's angry eyes before she went dancing made her stomach churn. She shouldn't of done that. He was her boyfriend, she loved him, if she hadn't been so drunk she'd never of left him sitting there alone in the middle of trying to make earlier right.

She leaned her face into Bert, the hippo had enough give to him that it didn't hurt. She stayed that way as minutes ticked by and she tried to do better with her memory of the previous night. The forensic scientist in her didn't like not having answers but honestly she couldn't remember a thing.

"Except that Andrews mad at me." She said after sitting hunched over her hippo nearly twenty minutes.

"No broken hearts or hangovers today Abbs, we've got a case" Gibbs said as he entered her office and Abby heard him set the Caf-Pow! Down on her desk.

"Okay Gibbs, I'll get on it right after I finish my power nap" Abby said, hoping that someone had changed the laws of reality for a couple of minutes and Gibbs would be too distracted by other stuff to wonder why she was taking a power nap instead of going straight for the caffine.

Oh, and that he wouldn't be suspicious about her not moving since he came in.

"Abby" He said, his voice had that hint of a threat in it.

"I came in really early and I thought if I started taking naps then maybe I…" He was giving her the look. She could feel it. "…just promise not to freak out okay? It's not as bad as it looks. It was ju…" A set of hands gently but firmly forced her to sit up straight and once she'd lost her protective hippo mask one hand withdrew from her shoulder and hooked under her chin to raise her to face him. Before he had time to react she started babbling at him. "It's really not that bad Gibbs, I was just at the club and drinking a little too much cause Andrew was mad at me and I think I got involved with a mosh pit an…" It was as pointless as any of her previous attempts to stall him were. The moment she'd mentioned Andrew Gibbs had reached for his cell phone and was pressing buttons.

No one picked up in the bullpen and he was calling another number before Abby had time to react even to tell him that it was six thirty in the morning. She heard Tony's cell phone finish telling Gibbs that no one was picking up before Gibbs spoke, nearly shouting Dinozzo's name as if he expected it would get the agent on the phone faster. "If you're not on the phone with Andrew Sureman's address in twenty minutes Ziva's going to be giving me an alibi for two murders."

"GIBBS!" Abby shrieked, his reaction worse than she'd hoped (but actually nearly better than she'd expected). "No Gibbs, he wasn't mad at me by the time I was at the club. It was a mosh pit and a little too much to drink. Probably a really bad decision on my part, and the guys who got their faces kicked in too now that I think of it but no need to find the Mikel Baseball bat."

Bringing up Mikel had been a big mistake.

"ZIVA" Gibbs was shouting to the Israeli's answering machine a moment later looking like he was honestly considering shooting the next agent who failed to answer their phone. Abby's protests, and instinctive babbling about how it wasn't a good idea to be talking about alibis and murders on a government issued cell phone, went ignored.

"Dear god Jethro it's six thirty in the morning. Even if I could hear you all the way in autopsy I doubt agent David could hear you if she's not in the building yet." Ducky said as he came walking in with a clip-board. "What is all the ruckus about?" Gibbs shut his cell phone so hard Abby almost winced in sympathy for the poor little electronic, then he stepped aside so Ducky would be able to see the cause of his current anger.

"Abigail, who did this to you?" Ducky said, hurrying forward to get a closer look at the injury. "Are you hurt anywhere else?" He spared half a glance toward Gibbs. "Might I go cause someone to die of natural causes or will I just be cleaning up after you Jethro?" He asked, gently tugging at the collar of Abby's jacket, obviously he'd noticed she was holding herself a bit stiffly.

"Yeah mosh pits are pretty dangerous places and since I was in one and drunk, which I admit once more was completely my fault, I'm a little battered" Her attempt to use the information they were going to get out of her anyway to try to redirect their anger to the correct cause of the injuries was ruined by her word choice.

She'd gotten less than two hours of sleep and only had half a Caf-Pow, they needed to give her time to get caffinated before she had to be her boyfriends guardian vampire.

She slid off her jacket slowly, wincing when she realized how bad the bruises on her arms were. She hadn't turned on a light before leaving for work, she'd been too shaken up for that until she got here, and hadn't really seen the full extent of the damage. She had a high tolerance for pain and hadn't really thought it would look this bad.

"nothing broken it seems…" Ducky commented, his voice tight. "Nothing time won't heal it seems but this is not the ideal exam location. A bit like my old days…" He fell silent and Abby could practically feel him giving Jethro a worried look about something or other.

"Well then, Gibbs you said you had a case which means evidence which means I'm needed here with my babies and Bert." She retrieved the hippo from the floor and returned him to his place on her desk and shut down the Gibbs image before turning them and turning her Abbyness up as high as she could make it go with so little caffeine. "I'm personally ready to start work for the day. Give me evidence I will evident it." She slipped past Ducky into her lab. "Fingerprints? No problem. Unknown substance? I got it covered. Alien object? I'll dealienate it. I feel like all I need is a couple caf-Pow!s and I could isolate the mutant DNA in the rage virus if you needed me to." She made a mental note to spend less time around Tony, she was making bad movie references now. Though she should probably blame her earlier daydreams for this one.

"I was just coming to leave you your morning fix Abbs" Gibbs said, coming over to put a hand on her shoulder and stop her pacing and ranting. "We haven't had a chance to process the scene yet. Go with Ducky, that's an order. No accidents allowed Abby. I'll be back to check on you later." He started to head out.  
"Gibbs!"

"I'm talking, not killing Abby." Predicting her worry about him confronting (and possibly maiming) her boyfriend.

"I hoped so Gibbs." She said, secretly relieved. "Just… could you bring the evidence down when you check up on me? The longer you and Ducky only know the more likely I'll get something done today." He was gone before answering.

"Wait one moment for me will you Abigail?" Ducky asked before following Gibbs. A minute later when Abby went to do as ordered she wasn't surprised to find the elevators temporarily out of commission.


	3. Chapter 2

A/Ncis: This chapter actually sets up the case and sadly has no Abby. However next chapter will return to being Abby centric. The story will continue to bounce between the case and the NCIS drama and as the following chapters will show intersect them a bit.

A/n of Doom: I have only what little knowledge I've gathered from watching shows like NCIS so doubtlessly I've made some mistake in here somewhere. I take full responsibility but request you carry on as if I weren't an idiot.

Gathering A/n: Dedicated to Jazmin99 whose reviews made the unbearable 24 hours that was yesterday a little bit better.

A New A/n: Yes, I realise there was some technical (and grammatical) difficulties with the original posting of this chapter. In my hurry to post todays chapter before I had to go deal with real life stuff I missed a few things. Being your own beta reader is hard when you are in a hurry.

_No Cellphones or ducks were hurt in the making of this fic._

**Chapter 2**

"So let me get this straight." McGee said to Tony as the elevator doors opened before them and they walked into the bullpen. "You dropped your cell phone in a duck pond?"

"It was an accident McGeek." Tony said, clearly frustrated he'd even mentioned he'd lost his cell phone in the first place and was regretting letting the location slip. He was a highly trained senior agent, it was undignified that he'd even been near a duck pond. "I was on a date."

"Or trying to pick up one from the local fowl" McGee muttered.

"I thought the term was chick?" Ziva chimed in from her desk as she took out her cell phone. She'd missed a call earlier. "Or perhaps you've found an attraction to Ducky's namesakes we must learn to be accepting of." She teased absently, rewarded by his glare as he sat down, while she looked to see who had called.

Gibbs… _"not good"_ she muttered to herself in Hebrew as she put the phone to her ear to listen to his message.

"ZIVA" McGee and Tony didn't have to ask why the Mossad agent had almost fallen from her chair in surprise. They'd heard the message loud and clear.

"This is going to be a lengthy day." Ziva muttered, making it close enough to the idiom that no one corrected her.

"Depending on who you are, seems you're the only one the boss is screaming at" Tony said with a smirk. He practically knew the headslap was coming before it hit him.

"I wouldn't be so sure. The park service called, apparently some idiot dropped his cell phone in a pond and my "screaming" scared you new girlfriends" Gibbs said as he walked past with his usual coffee.

"Morning boss" Tony said with a wince as he rubbed the back of his head and sat down. "What's up?"

"Grab your gear. We've got a crime scene. Petty officer Sarah Lanlin's boyfriend was found dead this morning by the Alexandria City PD with the petty officers fingerprints on the gun they believe shot him."

"They're handing over the case?" Tony asked, their experience with such a clear cut case was that local PD's wanted it when it was this easy.

"They called it in before I got here." They were nearly to the elevator when he stopped. "Ziva, find the address for Andrew Sureman and meet up with us at the crime scene." He handed her a folder she assumed had the address for the crime scene on it.

"Andrew Sureman?" She repeated, wondering why the name sounded so familiar and why he was asking her to do it.

"Security should be able to give it to you, or ask Abbs" He said as the elevator doors were shutting. She just caught the sound of Tony asking if that was Abby's boyfriend before the doors shut all the way.

This was defiantly going to be a lengthy day.

But when wasn't it? At least she'd have something to entertain herself with once she got back to Tony.

With a little cat-like smile she turned and headed down to security. Sureman had picked Abby up more than once which meant to get into headquarters parking he would of had to show his license, which meant they probably had it (and his address) on file. She'd get it, get her car, and be at the scene before the local LEOs left.

If she sped a little she might make it before that.

Her smile widened as she realized that her concept of "speeding" might be why Gibbs had her do this little errand.

Gibbs drove down the highway, pointedly ignoring McGee and Tony's bickering. Like any father with more important things on his mind he only turned his attention to them when they began to act a little more like teenage boys than was completely necessary.

"DINNOZO!" Gibbs barked shooting the man currently giving McGee a noogie a glare before turning his thoughts back to that morning.

His grip on the steering wheel tightened, though it was the only thing betraying the rage he felt flare up again as he remembered the first sight of her this morning. He was calmer now, and did admit it was possible he was overreacting to a unlucky mix of liquor and clubbing (though he'd have a talk with her about that later and he wasn't too pleased with Sureman for leaving her in that mess) after the Mikeal incident he was a little wary of Abby's love life. She'd hidden a crazy stalker and it was only luck they found out about him before he killed her.

He wasn't about to let things get that drastic again.

With a sigh he pulled into the parking lot of the apartment complex where the murder had happened. Minutes later the team ducked under the crime scene tape.

"NCIS, special agent Gibbs, what can you tell me?" Gibbs asked the one who looked to be the person in charge, flashing his badge. Tony and McGee got to work familiarizing themselves with the crime scene and rechecking the work already done.

"Call came in a bit after midnight, the neighbors heard gunshots more realistic than the normal screaming TV they called it in. We turned up and broke down the door when no one answered. Found your petty officer Sarah Lanlin on the couch staring at a gun and our victim Justin Donahue in the bedroom. Shot three times, twice in the chest and once in the head, shooter was a hell of a shot. Casings put the shooter by the sink and splatter puts the vic where he is right now." The investigator said, walking Gibbs through the scene. "We sent the gun down to the lab with the shells and body for autopsy but the fact your petty officer was the vic's boyfriend and the weapon was her gun with her prints on it we held her for questioning."

He had stopped by a bookshelf near the far side of the room. "That was when we found out she was marine reserve. We were trying to figure out what to do when our CSI team found something over here that we'd missed. Blood spatter on the book bindings. We did a little more checking and found traces of blood on the floor and half a dozen surfaces."

Gibbs raised an eyebrow. "Donahue fighting his killer?"

"That's what we thought at first but he doesn't have a defensive wound on him and by then we realized that your petty officer was developing a new set of bruises. The one's she'd had when we found her were already a day or two old."

Gibb's mind flashed to Abby in her lab that morning before he shoved away the mind tangent and asked. "Fight gone sour?"

"More like "He had it commin" boss" Tony said coming over. The blank look he earned from both men causing him to only pause half a moment before continuing. "From a song in the movie Chicago about murdering abusive husbands an…"

"The point Dinozzo?" Gibbs prompted.

"We found these" Tony explain offering a couple of picture frames. "I'm guessing that's our petty officer in the uniform. Notice anything strange about her face?" There was some slight discoloration around her right eye in one. In another it looked like her lip was a little swollen and cut. "Not much but added in the state Lanlin was in when you found her we might be talking a new mistress of murderess row."

"I was thinking Donahue might have been abusive but…" the investigator shook his head trailing off. Gibbs gave him the look, not bothering to ask 'but what?' the investigator sighed. "We all but hand fed her the excuse that he was abusive and it was self defense but she denies he was even angry at her last night and insisted he loved her and would never hurt her. We're piled high with cases already so we figured pass this one off to you since you look after your own so well."

Gibbs nodded, trying to ignore the part of his recent memory that wanted to think about something off the case when he needed to focus. "Then we'll take it from here. Send the evidence, case files, and body to NCIS and I want to talk to Lanlin asap."

The investigator nodded and left to make arrangements as Gibbs walked the scene to familiarize himself with it as best he could, he never like coming into a case when the scene had already been processed. There was too much chance for error.

"We're done here boss" Tony said after a time, approaching Gibbs as the investigator finished offering to take Gibbs back to their precinct to sign the paperwork needed to formally hand over the case, maintain the chain of evidence, and oversee moving Petty Officer Lanlin to NCIS.

"Call Abbs and Ducky to tell them whats on it's way and find out what happened to Ziva." Gibbs ordered as he went to follow the investigator. As Tony opened his mouth to comment Gibbs called back over his shoulder. "And get a new phone Dinozzo."

"…Will do boss." Tony replied before turning back to pack up what he and McGee had brought with them, finding Gibbs' keys left in plain sight.

It was going to be an interesting drive back.

Almost three hours later Gibbs walked Petty officer Lanlin into the interrogation room only to find a handsome black haired man in his thirties already sitting in there. Admittedly, Gibb's team wasn't the only one to even use the interrogation room but usually they let him know beforehand. Somewhat confused, he pulled Lanlin out with him and left the even more confused man alone.

Figuring he didn't need a Petty Officer who was so banged up and tired she could barely walk in tow when he went to find out what was going on with his interrogation room and what had happened to Ziva (as well as check in on Abby) he led the Petty officer to the bullpen to get one of the team to baby-sit her for a minute when he found a second strange sight.

The bullpen was deserted.

Gibbs was not amused.

He glanced at the Lanlin, she looked ready to drop where she stood. Ugly bruises were forming on top of fading older ones making it hard to tell the difference between the bags under her eyes and her black eyes. He had thought it would be easier if he just brought her in himself and going on the most current theory he was inclined to treat her with a little more kindness than a normal murder suspect but this was getting him nowhere.

He kicked out a chair from Tony's desk and motioned for her to sit, which she did so, practically collapsing into the seat. "Stay." He told her and she nodded. He pulled out his cell, dialing autopsy.

"Autopsy" Palmer's voice said over the phone.

"Where's Ducky?" Gibbs asked, annoyance in his voice.

"Down with Abby" Palmer answered.

"I've got a Petty officer in need of first aid and a babysitter." He waited half a moment before adding. "Today Palmer" and hanging up the phone before Palmer finished his stuttering reply. He looked to Lanlin, intent on telling her exactly what he'd do if she moved before Palmer got there or gave anyone trouble only to find she'd dozed off.

Gibbs sighed but let her lie, heading toward the elevators more than ready to get some answers to what the hell was wrong now.


	4. Chapter 3

**A/n Chapter 3a:** I make a slight reference to my other story Phylum Cnidaria in this chapter. You don't have to have read it since the story is only an expansion on the Tony/Abby relationship I outline in this chapter.

**A/n part A-B:** Anyone whose read the above stated story might be expecting a extra long chapter. This little chapter was supposed to involve three interrogations (Abby's, Sureman's, and Lanlin's) but after it was nearly four pages from just the first two and I still had an extra scene before getting to the third I figured I'd break it up a little. The next chapter might actually be a bit on the short side. Blame Indiana Jones and two NCIS marathons in the space of three days for the slowing down of my normal production rate.

**A/n part dddd:** This chapter is dedicated to tables and chairs. Weather we use them, abuse them, or accidentally let our bosses' surrogate daughter's stalker get near her and loose them they are incredibly useful and deserve our applaud.

**A/n Insanity:** I'd like to make it clear just how late it is and that any insanity in the last a/n is not my fault.

_No interrogation tables were hurt in the making of this fic_

* * *

Black and white fade in: Abby sitting in a wheelchair with her arms crossed while Tony, Ziva, and McGee stand over her.

* * *

When Gibbs stepped off the elevator to Abby's lab he stopped half a moment, raising an eyebrow at the sight before him.

Abby reigned over her lab as always, but at the moment from a wheelchair Gibbs didn't even bother trying to figure out where it had been obtained from. With a Caf-pow in one hand, Bert in her lap, ad Ziva dutifully pushing her around Abby gave McGee orders and ran her own tests. To one side, a bit out of the way of the action Ducky stood with Tony, relating some story without taking his eyes off Abby.

Actually, it seemed McGee was the only one in the room who took his eyes off Abby for more than a moment and Gibbs had a feeling that was because Abby was paying attention to what he was doing.

"Someone mind telling me what's going on?" Gibbs asked walking in. When Ziva turned herself and Abby toward him he shook his head in exasperation. Abby was the only one in the room who didn't have the expression of a child caught misbehaving.

"Can you make them go Gibbs? I can't get anything done." Abby complained.

"I am sorry I was not at the scene Gibbs, someone came up" Ziva said.

"Something, Ziva." Tony remarked coming to stand next to Ziva at the same time McGee came to stand on her other side. It was strangely close to a preplanned strategic maneuver.

"No I meant someone. I got Sureman's address but on the way out I ran into Sureman coming in with a wrapped present for Abby. He couldn't get it through security without unwrapping it so I went down to get Abby."

"You never said Andrew was here!" Abby protested but a look from Gibbs made her quiet.

"After seeing Abby and remembering your interest in Sureman I had him admitted and took him to the interrogation room to wait for you."Abby opened her mouth again to protest but Gibbs put a finger to her lips then turned to go, intent on speaking with Sureman before getting back on track with the case, he'd be less distracted that way.

"Wait boss" Tony called to him, causing Gibbs to turn around. "We haven't just been sitting on our hands all day." An elbow to the ribcage later he amended his statement. "Ziva, hasn't been sitting on her hands all day."  
Gibbs looked at the Israeli expectantly. She nodded. "I could not put him in interrogation and leave so I began doing some research on him. Dr. Sureman, formerly Dr. Nealson, changed his name and moved to Virginia two years ago after a highly publicized domestic violence case."

"He won." Tony put in. "But the community apparently didn't take well to having a wife beater in their midst."

Gibbs, and the others, turned their eyes to Abby. She was making a rather adamant protest in sign language since Gibbs had repeatedly silenced her. Since she had their attention she started speaking again, bursting into an explanation. "That wasn't his fault! He told me about that. He was dating a gold digger who was trying to marry rich. When he tried to get her to sign a pre-nup things got nasty. He broke off the engagement and she tried to charge him with assault. He won the case but she kept smearing his name until he had to move and change it to get a fresh start." Abby insisted.

Gibbs nodded slowly. The story made sense, and he knew from personal experience how vindictive a wife scorned could be but…

"McGee, keep helping Abby. Ducky, get ready for autopsy, the bodies arriving soon. Tony, Ziva, baby-sit the Petty officer until I'm done with Sureman. And Ziva." He reached out gently head slapping her, she should have been at the scene, duty before personal matters but. "Good job." She had done exactly what he would of given the circumstances.

With that the team knew they were dismissed. As they left Gibbs knelt down so he was eye level with Abby. "Holding up?" He asked.

"Well I hurt all over, feel stupid for getting drunk in a moshpit, my boyfriends about to be maimed for something he didn't do, I'm out of Caf-Pow, Andrew's probably going to dump me after all this mess if he's still alive to do so" She said with a very long sigh. "my evil twin Unabby is back and I can't concentrate cause I keep thinking about the Zombie apocalypse." Gibbs raised an eyebrow. "Bert got a rip and I decided he would be safer here and I was thinking about safe places and how this is probably one of the safest places for a hippo for anything short of total apocalypse and then I was thinking about other safe places and how some would be safe in some apocalypses and then I was trying to decide if you could fend off hordes of Zombies and I kinda got sidetracked."

The look she kept getting throughout her story, like she was just waiting for him to tell her to get to the point caused a smile to tug at the corners of his lips. He almost never just let her ramble like that. "Zombie's Abby?"

"I know! Really weird thing to think about in the morning, right? But on Friday Andrew and I did a Zombie movie marathon and watched like eight of them. 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later, all the Resident Evils, Dawn of the Dead." Her voice faded slightly as she listed and she sighed again. Slumping in her chair and forcing a weak smile onto her face she finally went back to what he was waiting for. "Do you think he'll really dump me?" She asked.

"You tell me Abbs." He said quietly, keeping his personal opinion that the sooner Sureman was out of her life and not able to hurt her the happier he'd be.

"Well he was really mad at me yesterday, and when he found me at the club and tried to make things up I blew him off. Now he came to make it up to me again and you put him in interrogation. He probably thinks I'm going to pull a his ex almost wife on him." She looked up at Gibbs. She wasn't crying, in truth Abby didn't really cry much, but with her bruised face so upset she looked like hell. "He's the guy Gibbs, the Law of Big numbers finally paying off guy. It took me thi" She apparently decided not to say her age with MeGee in the lab, despite how inconspicuous he was making himself. "A really long time to get the numbers that high and what if he's the only one I get."

"Abby." Gibbs said, putting a finger to her lips. She'd long ago told him about her theories of the laws of big numbers. He withdrew his finger and signed to her what he would of felt ridiculous saying out loud. _Would The One leave you?_

Abby stared at him a long moment then shook her head with a small smile, signing back. _Thank you Gibbs. _The fact she used "G-i-b-bastards" for his name sign always drew a smile to his lips.

"Go back to work" He told her before kissing her forehead gently. "And take it easy." He stood and headed to interrogation.

Tony had left Ziva to baby-sit the Petty Officer almost immediately after they'd arrived in the bullpen. He'd learned a lot when Gibbs left, some more useful than others. One thing particularly useful at the moment was something Ducky had told him the day after Gibbs "retired". Gibbs always kept a cup of Caf-pow filled ¾ of the way full and a bag of ice in a fridge in the break room on the floor below the bullpen. It only lasted a few days before going flat but it was useful when he didn't have time to go out to fetch one for the Lab-Rat.

After hearing just a little of Abby's rant about how she was holding up he figured he had enough time to fix at least one of those problems. NCIS' lab rat needed looking out for from time to time and had always had a protector. When Gibbs left it had probably been the first part of his new job he'd done decently.

Now that Gibbs was back he'd been called to play that part less and less as Abby's trust in Gibbs quickly renewed itself.

But Tony didn't mind swooping in to save the day now and again. He had always liked the idea of being a superhero, it was part of the reason he'd become a cop, and Abby had a habit of making him feel like he was at least her superhero.

And years with Gibbs had taught him to take what boosts to his ego he could get.

Abby had been more than happy to accept the refill to her caffeine addiction and was wheeling herself around the lab with renewed vigor. He knew she didn't need the wheelchair but one look at the fun she was having with it was all he needed to keep quite and let her find something mildly decent about being hurt.

"Abby" He called to get her attention as he left. Once she was looking at him he flashed her one of the few signs he knew. _Call me_ He grinned his patented smile and left.

By the time he slipped into observation Gibbs was done with pleasantries with Sureman. Gibbs was sitting back in his chair, listening to Sureman relate the events of the night before with a nervousness that really reminded Tony of a boyfriend meeting his girlfriends father for the first time under circumstances that were less than optimal.

Well, being dragged into interrogation because you're girlfriends surrogate family thinks you've been slapping her around wasn't exactly Tony's idea of a good first impression. "Blows Meet the Parents all to hell" He commented quietly before Gibbs suddenly slammed his fist on the table making both Tony and Sureman jump.

For a criminal pathologist Sureman didn't seem to be that in control in the interrogation room. "Don't lie to me Sureman" Gibbs said, his voice cold. "You got her out of the crowd, took her home and left? Ever occur to you she might have a concussion? Might need medical attention? That she might not be feeling well when she woke up?" There was something about Sureman's reactions that bothered Tony, as he watched Sureman flinch at each of these questions. "You said Abby told you about me." Gibbs added after a moment. "Then I think you know what would happen if I told her what I really think of you."

Sureman's lips pressed into a thin line. Tony guessed that he did.

"You make her happy, and her life isn't my business." Gibbs said standing up and pushing in his chair. "But hurt her and…" Gibbs shook his head, dry smile on his face as he came around the table, pulled Sureman to his feet, and opened the door. "I'll kill ya." He gave Sureman a slight shove out the door. "Go home, make her some dinner. I'm sending her home as soon as she's processed everything."

Gibbs sat back down at the table. "Dinozzo?

Tony wasn't completely surprised Gibbs had known he was there. "Yeah boss?"

"Get the Petty Officer, and make sure Sureman doesn't stop by the Lab on his way out."

"On it boss."


End file.
